The Large Language Models (LLMs) that power generative AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini have been built on the theft of human-created work – without permission, without transparency and without payment. We believe that this scraping and theft of copyrighted work is an existential threat to the creative sector, lessening opportunities and the economic stability of authors and illustrators.
Our agency supports the work of the Australian Society of Authors and the Australian Publishing Association in calling for greater governance, transparency and consent when AI is used in the literary sector from all parties: tech companies, publishers and authors. For more information: https://www.asauthors.org.au/artificial-intelligence-guidelines-for-creators/
We require ALL prospective clients to provide an AI declaration whenever they submit a piece of work to us. This must outline exactly where and how you have used AI-generated content in your work, and as a rule, we will not consider any projects that have been generated, co-created or substantially edited with the use of generative AI. In the interests of transparency, we’ve outlined what that looks like in practice for our agency. (Please note: other agents or industry professionals may draw the line differently to us.)
✅ Spellcheck and basic grammar checks embedded in word processing software.
✅ AI-assisted web research (provided the resulting material is not cut and pasted into your manuscript).
✅Asking AI to provide an editorial report (for example, providing feedback on the pacing of an individual scene. But ONLY if you take and respond to that feedback directly in your manuscript.)
✅ Using AI to transcribe written speech.
❌ Telling us broadly that you have used AI for “editorial feedback” or “support” without specifics. Again, no sentence in your manuscript should be touched/altered by gen AI.
❌ Pasting sections of your text into AI, and asking it to rewrite, improve, restructure or optimise your words (even if you “personally approve” every creative decision)
❌ Asking AI to finetune details of your characters, plot or structure.
❌ Asking AI to write or revise your synopsis or pitch.
❌ Asking AI to write your cover letter.
❌ Using AI to generate “sample” illustrations for your work.
❌ Using AI to mock up a cover for your book.
❌ Using AI to organise your memories, anecdotes or interviews into a memoir.
❌ Using AI to generate text to accompany your human-created illustrations.
It is normally very evident when an author or illustrator uses AI to generate or heavily edit parts of their text, submission materials or illustrations. We would rather see a piece of work that is not entirely perfect, where the human behind the creating is obvious, rather than the bland, lifeless, increasingly formulaic submissions that are clogging up our inboxes.
It is not part of our usual practice to run prospective projects through AI detection software, but some publishers may do this. If your work is being flagged as >20% AI-generated in such software, your work will likely be considered unpublishable by most reputable publishing houses. It is in your interests to be transparent and honest about how and where you have used generative AI in the creation process.
And unless there’s a very purposeful reason why your work does not adhere to the guidelines above, we hope you will understand that any work that does not meet these expectations will be deleted from our systems and not considered for representation.